When Howard Stern's movie, Private Parts, was in the theater DH and I went to see it. A few minutes before the lights went down a lady and 3 or 4 kids, aged probably 8ish to young teen, walked in and found seats near the front. DH and I exchanged looks. About 15 minutes in they got up and left. Someone yelled "What the hell did you think you were going to see, lady?"

Perhaps she was an innocent and unworldly soul, unfamiliar with certain commonly-used expressions; and had thought that the film was going to be a comic / patriotic romp for kids, with an army setting (language suitably cleaned up) -- "the son of Mrs. Parts, joins up" ??

I'm betting that the young teen had heard from older teens that this was a really funny and cool movie, and had convinced Mom to take them...without quite realizing how inappropriate it would be for younger siblings. Surely no one is stupid enough to ask their mother to take them to that movie, knowing how raunchy Howard Stern can be! But really, what was your first clue? That it was R rated? Under what circumstances can a person believe that an R rated movie would be OK for an 8 year old? Although the mother of my Little Sister once urged me to take her to the movies even though I thought there was nothing appropriate playing, saying that 'JFK' would be OK, since it was history. I don't remember JFK's assassination, but I've heard stories from slightly older kids about how traumatic it was for them to hear about; there was no way I was taking a 10 year old to the movie. She was old enough to be traumatized by it...and if she wasn't upset by it, I sure didn't want that information. It's entirely too easy to connect with the grief of the First Family in those images, and if you can't, then part of your moral compass is missing.

I do think that the R rating should have prompted the parent to find out more about the movie to judge its appropriateness. However, IMO not all R-rated movies are inappropriate for children. For example, The King's Speech is a beautiful, inspiring, historical movie that is rated R purely because of the language--i.e., because of a primly delivered string of curse words spoken at the advice of a speech therapist to help with stuttering. The cursing is not angry, nor directed at anyone, but it includes the word "f---," so R rating it is. I'd consider that movie far more appropriate for children than a lot of the PG-13 movies out there.

When Howard Stern's movie, Private Parts, was in the theater DH and I went to see it. A few minutes before the lights went down a lady and 3 or 4 kids, aged probably 8ish to young teen, walked in and found seats near the front. DH and I exchanged looks. About 15 minutes in they got up and left. Someone yelled "What the hell did you think you were going to see, lady?"

Perhaps she was an innocent and unworldly soul, unfamiliar with certain commonly-used expressions; and had thought that the film was going to be a comic / patriotic romp for kids, with an army setting (language suitably cleaned up) -- "the son of Mrs. Parts, joins up" ??

I'm betting that the young teen had heard from older teens that this was a really funny and cool movie, and had convinced Mom to take them...without quite realizing how inappropriate it would be for younger siblings. Surely no one is stupid enough to ask their mother to take them to that movie, knowing how raunchy Howard Stern can be! But really, what was your first clue? That it was R rated? Under what circumstances can a person believe that an R rated movie would be OK for an 8 year old? Although the mother of my Little Sister once urged me to take her to the movies even though I thought there was nothing appropriate playing, saying that 'JFK' would be OK, since it was history. I don't remember JFK's assassination, but I've heard stories from slightly older kids about how traumatic it was for them to hear about; there was no way I was taking a 10 year old to the movie. She was old enough to be traumatized by it...and if she wasn't upset by it, I sure didn't want that information. It's entirely too easy to connect with the grief of the First Family in those images, and if you can't, then part of your moral compass is missing.

I do think that the R rating should have prompted the parent to find out more about the movie to judge its appropriateness. However, IMO not all R-rated movies are inappropriate for children. For example, The King's Speech is a beautiful, inspiring, historical movie that is rated R purely because of the language--i.e., because of a primly delivered string of curse words spoken at the advice of a speech therapist to help with stuttering. The cursing is not angry, nor directed at anyone, but it includes the word "f---," so R rating it is. I'd consider that movie far more appropriate for children than a lot of the PG-13 movies out there.

Added to which, many parents do not have a problem with children hearing bad language. My parents only minded us repeating bad language, but hearing it was not a problem.

Yesterday I stopped at the sushi place for lunch. The restaurant has been running a promo for several months advertising "50% off appetizers, sushi, and rolls"; there's a sign out front (under the "XYZ SUSHI" restaurant sign in English and Japanese) and it's nice because I can now afford the fancy sushi rolls I so crave! They also have a poster of sushi, a printed menu, and a newspaper clipping about the fish they use in their restaurant that the paper printed a while back displayed in the entryway.

I was sitting at the table right inside the door enjoying my lunch when an older woman came in. The hostess approached her, and the woman asked what kinds of rolls they had. The hostess was a little confused, but started describing some of the types of sushi they had.

Woman: What? No, rolls! What kind of rolls!Hostess: Well...some have fish, and others are vegetarian...Woman: No, I mean sweet rolls! Do you have sweet rolls?Hostess: Uh...well, some rolls have mango or citrus juice...Woman: Rolls! Buns! Pastries! Don't you sell bread here?Hostess: Ohhh! ...um, no. This is a sushi restaurant...

Cracked me up. Nothing about the sushi restaurant looks remotely like it could possibly be a bakery... She did allow the hostess to seat her. Unfortunately they were too far away so I couldn't hear any other dialogue. Was very curious about what the woman ended up thinking about sushi, and if she enjoyed it or just continued to be confused.

Speaking of sushi, I have two "silly things" stories. One's mine, the other is one that I got off a website a few years ago.

My Story

My husband and I love sushi, but we have a tendency to just say "Ooh, that looks good", order a bunch of stuff, and then completely forget what we ordered. The last time we did this, I thought "This is dumb - I want to know what we ordered so that I'll know to order it again." So, when the waitress gave us our bill, I said "Excuse me - I was wondering if you could tell us what we ordered?" She gave me a strange look and said "Sushi." I said "Yes, I know - but what type of sushi?" Speaking slowly, she said "Fiiiiiish." I gave up at that point.

Website Story

This was off a "I hate my mother-in-law" site. The poster said that she went out for lunch at a food court with her MIL (even though they didn't get along), and the poster ordered sushi. When her food arrived, MIL spotted the wasabi and said "Ooh, I like that stuff. Can I have some?" The poster, thinking it was unlikely that her MIL had had wasabi before, said "Are you sure? That's wasabi - it's like horseradish. It's really spicy." MIL scoffed "Of course I'm sure! I know what wasabi is, thank you. I eat it all the time!" She proceeded to scoop up the entire spoonful and ate the whole thing. Cue red face, choking, and eyes pouring with tears.

This was off a "I hate my mother-in-law" site. The poster said that she went out for lunch at a food court with her MIL (even though they didn't get along), and the poster ordered sushi. When her food arrived, MIL spotted the wasabi and said "Ooh, I like that stuff. Can I have some?" The poster, thinking it was unlikely that her MIL had had wasabi before, said "Are you sure? That's wasabi - it's like horseradish. It's really spicy." MIL scoffed "Of course I'm sure! I know what wasabi is, thank you. I eat it all the time!" She proceeded to scoop up the entire spoonful and ate the whole thing. Cue red face, choking, and eyes pouring with tears.

This was off a "I hate my mother-in-law" site. The poster said that she went out for lunch at a food court with her MIL (even though they didn't get along), and the poster ordered sushi. When her food arrived, MIL spotted the wasabi and said "Ooh, I like that stuff. Can I have some?" The poster, thinking it was unlikely that her MIL had had wasabi before, said "Are you sure? That's wasabi - it's like horseradish. It's really spicy." MIL scoffed "Of course I'm sure! I know what wasabi is, thank you. I eat it all the time!" She proceeded to scoop up the entire spoonful and ate the whole thing. Cue red face, choking, and eyes pouring with tears.

Although I've seen it happen, I don't understand how people can mistake wasabi for guacamole. Wasabi is usually quite a thick paste while guacamole is looser in texture. Also, guacamole usually has a delicious smell while wasabi doesn't smell like much of anything.

Back in college some friends and I went out to a Chinese restaurant with a fellow student who had never eaten Chinese food. One of the. Condiments on the table was a small bowl of Chinese mustard. Before we could stop her, this poor lady slathered the mustard on her egg roll the way you'd put regular mustard on a hot dog. I didn't know that faces were capable of turning that color.

One of my friends maintains that wasabi should not be green because green is a cooling color, and one we associate with things being "safe" or "ok" just as green light go. So it should be red.

This was after she took a big bite scoop having no idea what it was, I believe she was deeply offended at the safe green coloring misleading her. Apparently those of us saying "Don't, you'll burn your entire mouth" wasn't warning enough.

I can eat spice, but wasabi is like...evil. Even the tiniest bit, nope, I'm pushing it away.

I've heard certain peppers referred to as being "as hot as rocket fuel" and wasabi being "as hot as lit (burning) rocket fuel" - so, yeah, it can be amazing how people who grow up in locations with milder spices react to the really hot ones for the first time.

My mother tells the tale of these little red peppers that looked like grape sized tomatoes that a friend had in a bowl on the kitchen counter. My brother was a toddler who could just barely reach that bowl and they saw his hand reach up and get one pepper.

Mom wanted to stop him, the hostess told her that he'd bite into it and start leaving the peppers alone.

They heard a funny squeak...but two minutes later his hand reached up and sneaked another pepper out of the bowl. They moved the bowl.

WonderfulGrandSon's loves that movie - and after watching the first one 437 times, his parents were ready for a change...I was ready to see the sequel after only watching the first one four times...I'm a wimp in my fifties, I guess.

I was having lunch by myself at the Hog Island Oyster Company in San Francisco. I was sitting outside. To get to the outside area, you had to enter the restaurant under a huge sign that said "Hog Island Oyster Co." and walk past the oyster bar, piled high with oysters & staffed by a guy shucking oysters and serving them to customers seated at the bar. While I was eating, a waiter seated a couple at the table next to me and handed them menus. They were speaking German, which I knew well enough to understand them, and I assumed they were tourists.

They took one look at the mens, stood up & rapidly walked out. They had suddenly discovered that the Hog Island Oyster Company specializes in--guess what?

I was having lunch by myself at the Hog Island Oyster Company in San Francisco. I was sitting outside. To get to the outside area, you had to enter the restaurant under a huge sign that said "Hog Island Oyster Co." and walk past the oyster bar, piled high with oysters & staffed by a guy shucking oysters and serving them to customers seated at the bar. While I was eating, a waiter seated a couple at the table next to me and handed them menus. They were speaking German, which I knew well enough to understand them, and I assumed they were tourists.

They took one look at the mens, stood up & rapidly walked out. They had suddenly discovered that the Hog Island Oyster Company specializes in--guess what?

Specializes in, or serves nothing else? If I walked in to a restaurant called "Oyster Company," I would expect almost everything on the menu to include seafood, but not necessarily for everything to include oysters specifically. For instance, I've eaten at Red Lobster (walking past the "Red Lobster" sign and past the tank of live lobsters), but I don't think I've ever eaten lobster there (not even a dish just containing lobster). I ate other seafood. If that's what they were expecting, I don't think it's particularly silly.

We had a truck get stuck under an overpass somewhat nearby. They brought out the fire department and police and eventually had highway engineers out there trying to figure out how to get the truck out without causing more damage. The road was closed for HOURS and drew quite a crowd.

It was a 14 year old boy who solved the problem when he suggested they let some air out of the tires on the trailer.

That's a really old story/puzzle that I've heard multiple times over many years. One of the characters in in the movie, Working Girl (1988) tells that story almost verbatim.

And it used to be told about the local mental institution. One of the patients was the problem-solver.

I have always thought there might be a grain of truth to that one as there is a low-clearance underpass just outside that institution.